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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

"Strange Days with Bob Saget" is premiering tonight on A&E. There will be two back-to-back episodes starting at 10 pm EST. "Let's go Squatching," the second of the two half-hour shows, features a gaggle of bigfooters, including myself.

Some of the folks on the gig... Can you name them all?

You probably shouldn't expect this show to be a deeply informative and educational exploration of the sasquatch mystery. You can, however, expect this episode to be focused around Bob Saget having a light-hearted romp in the field with some of the most active bigfoot researchers today.

Bob was always kind and respectful of the subject while in the woods with us. He does think that sasquatches are real animals, and I know for a fact that he was moved by his personal interviews with members of the local Native American tribes. It's hard not to be...

The real question is how will his editors handle it. Will they show the computer analysis of various sasquatch vocalizations, or will they feature me talking about certain parts of ape anatomy and how that reflects primate intelligence? Most likely, they'll cut snippets from all sorts of stuff and make whatever they have funny. That is their job, after all.

So, tune in tonight and join me in not taking everything so seriously. Have some fun with the subject, and support those who draw attention to it. And remember, Mr. Saget is a true believer.

Enjoy the following interview with Bob.

Bob Saget Documents His Year of Living Strangely

Bob Saget and Cliff Barackman

Bob Saget says the production of his new series‘Strange Days’ made for a strange year. For this new documentary-style series – premiering Tuesday on A&E with two back-to-back half-hours starting at 10 p.m./9c – the ‘Full House’ funnyman went in search of unusual experiences.

And he found them: With a motorcycle club (the Iron Order, based in Kentucky where he met bikers with names like Peckerwood and Naked Dave, a man who eschews pants), Bigfoot believers, frat boys, a group of boys at summer camp, masked Mexican wrestlers, and comedian Jeffrey Ross, who accompanied Saget on a tear through Las Vegas after midnight.

Saget, 54, talked to Fancast on the phone from Los Angeles about his travels and the six or (possibly) seven episodes of ‘Strange Days’ that he produced from his adventures.

So, Bob, after spending some time searching for Sasquatch, did you come out of the experience believing in the existence of this elusive creature?

Well, the truth is, I really did believe it. For three days, I didn’t have any communication. I’d have e-mail at night. I have three daughters and a girlfriend and a mother and I was e-mailing, ‘I think this thing exists!’ and I’m being open it and they were like, ‘Yeah, OK.’

Did you hear Sasquatch stories at camp when you were a boy?

I never went to camp. That’s kind of what this show’s about anyway because it’s a bucket list of stuff I’ve always wanted to do. So I went to camp with this Camp Copper Creek [for Episode 5 of ‘Strange Days’]. They didn’t really discuss Sasquatch stories. But when I went up to the Pacific Northwest [for the Sasquatch episode], the first people we came across were Native-Americans who lived in this area . . . and they said they’d seen [Sasquatch]. And there was no acting for the camera. They didn’t even want us to be showing them.

In the 19th century, some Native-Americans thought cameras would steal their souls.

That’s exactly what we did do!

Which designation do the Native-Americans of the Pacific Northwest prefer – Sasquatch or Bigfoot?

They’re fine with Bigfoot and they also don’t like Yeti because Yeti would be the Abominable Snowman.

Yeah, you hate to hear people make that mistake.

They did tell me this: [The creatures] are men and women and teenagers. The teen-aged Sasquatch Bigfoot is about six feet tall and the parents are 1,500 pounds, 7 feet tall, maybe even 9 feet.

It all sounds credible to me.

Exactly right. People have asked me: Have you seen it? Now, if I saw it or filmed it, the question really is, would I have told people? I mean, I think that would have been in the news, wouldn’t it?

Have you made all of your ‘Strange Days’ episodes? How many are there?

There are six and we did a seventh. The seventh was one we did a year ago that was kind of a pilot. It was an hour show where I looked for women for American men who wanted brides from Ukraine. So we went to Ukraine and we met women, and the joke that came out of it for me for as a standup [comedian] was: The age of consent there is “yes”!

Correct me if I’m wrong: Is ‘Strange Days’ also the name of your standup act?

We went on tour and I decided that I’m going to call it the ‘Strange Days’ tour because it’s a tie-in – you love your branding. It’s been a really strange year for me and so I figured, What the hell.

Did anything else happen the rest of the year in your private life to make the year strange?

Actually the Vegas trip kind of began my personal life stuff which is that a relationship started for me, which is really cool – not with Jeffrey Ross. He was my Oscar Acosta [the attorney who accompanied Hunter Thompson on the Las Vegas trip that resulted in Thompson’s book 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas']. Again, I say ‘bucket list’ but it’s really just shows that only I want to do because I just don’t want to waste a second of my life.

And you’re not terminally ill. We can confirm that up front, can’t we?

We can. When you watch these shows, it does seem as if there’s something wrong with me. I’m not ill, I’m just dumb.

Tell me about the Las Vegas thing.

The whole show in general [is] I was a big fan of George Plimpton [the late author who was a pioneer in “participatory” journalism, writing books such as “Paper Lion,” after spending time training with the Detroit Lions football team]. So it’s a documentary approach and yet it’s not mean-spirited. It’s living it, but [for example], I go to Cornell and join a frat, but I’m not the guy that gets drunk and wears a toga. I’m not doing what [‘Borat’ and‘Bruno’ star] Sacha Baron Cohen does – I’m not going naked into a guy’s tent at some point [as Cohen did in ‘Bruno’]. It is figuring out what do I want to do in world that is polluted with a bunch of reality shows that aren’t real. Let’s do something that really studies a subculture and hope for the best because my background was documentary. So I got Jeffrey Ross. It was kind of like ‘Midnight Cowboy’ or ‘Scarecrow’ or whatever buddy movie where something’s wrong with one of them.

Which one of you is Ratso Rizzo and who’s Joe Buck – the Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight characters, respectively, in ‘Midnight Cowboy’?

I’d say he’s a little more Ratso Rizzo. He was sick that week. He didn’t die on the bus, but he was not well. He was hocking up [mucus] the whole time and it’s in the show.

That’ll make for attractive television.

And it’s in high-def!

Just to clarify, no hallucinogenic substances of the sort used by Hunter Thompson were ingested in the pursuit of this production, right?

None were used. They were used by animals, but they were not used by humans.

That’s very heart-warming. You talked about a “documentary background.” What’s your documentary background?

I went to film school at Temple University in Philadelphia and for a movie I made about a young man that had his face reconstructed, I won the Student Academy Award, and I was 21.

Overall, did you accomplish for yourself personally what you had set out to do in the making of this TV show?

Yes, that’s the crazy part of it. Six months after I did the biker show, I performed at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., so it’s a couple of thousand people. And [the Iron Order chairman] tells me a lot of our brothers are coming to the show and I got a hundred motorcycles in front of the Warner Theater in D.C. and I come out on stage and I yell, ‘Who the [expletive deleted] are we?’ And they go, ‘Iron Order!’

The only other motorcycle club on TV right now is the fictional criminal biker gang on ‘Sons of Anarchy.’ Is this Iron Order a more benevolent society?

They’re a caring group. Anyone that disgraces them is cast from the society. We had moments in the show where there are brothers and sisters who were not asked to be a part of the group anymore.

And yet, Naked Dave can stay!

We want [the show] to be entertaining. We also want it to be something where people go, ‘Holy crap! This really happened!’

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

It made me cringe to type the title of this blog, but that's what the title of the toy is... Allow me to explain. It irks me to no end when folks write "Big Foot," not only because of changing the compound word "bigfoot" into two separate words, but also that they capitalize it. I guess that in this case, capitalization is proper because it's a name of a toy, but it still rubs me wrong...

The Big Foot display at my local retailer.

Anyway, getting off my soapbox... I ran across this article about the guys behind the Fisher-Price Big Foot toy. I thought you might dig it. So, dig away!

"We look at existing toys on the shelves and ask ourselves, 'What could we do that would be more fun?' " he said. "We do [the brainstorming] day-in and day-out. Soon, you have some fruit from the tree."

Four to six Rehkemper employees get together regularly to target a toy category, such as dolls or vehicles. They talk about trends and ideas about the "next best thing" in one of the categories, Rehkemper said.

"We will create 100 new items and license five in a year, and perhaps 10 in two years," he said.

"It's a fickle thing. There is no way for us to know what will be a hit or a flop," Rehkemper said.

The brainstorming team came up with Big Foot ($87) while looking for "an aggressive kind of buddy that boys could knock down and roughhouse with and it would get back up," Rehkemper said.

"Toys are very sophisticated," Rehkemper said. "Many, such as Big Foot, require mechanics, programming and internal smarts, and in all cases, the toy has to have entertainment value. It has to make you laugh."

Rehkemper employees design the toys using CAD software on computers that show the results in 3D imaging. That information is fed into electronically controlled machining stations that make a model of the toy, seemingly by magic.

"Toy inventors are true magicians because they make fun items appear where there was none before," Rehkemper said.

"There is a lot of rejection out there," he said, adding the best judges of toys are children, including his 3- and 7-year-old daughters.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Members of the Olympic Project (and friends of the squatch), Derek Randles and Rich Germeau have entered some of their phenomenal photographs in Field and Stream's "Best Trail Cam Photo" contest. They have not only survived to round two, but were selected by the editors as one of the top three pictures.

The editor's choice. Mine, too.

The guys have won yet another game camera which they will integrate into the Olympic Project in the hope of capturing a photograph of a sasquatch.

This just goes to prove that age-old saying: "Good things come to those who 'squatch."

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

George Schaller is recognized by many as the world's preeminent primatologist. In 1959, he set off to live among the Mountain Gorillas of the Virunga Volcanoes in Eastern Africa. He was the first primatologist to study mountain gorillas in the field, and along with Dian Fossey, was instrumental in showing the world the peaceful and intelligent nature of these giant primates.

George Schaller

Dr. Schaller is one of the few professional scientists brave enough to state that the evidence for the existence of sasquatches should be looked at more closely. He is a skeptic himself, but clearly thinks that the scientific community is dropping the ball on this mystery by writing off the data before examining it (a decidedly unscientific position).

Here's a quote from Dr. Schaller in regards to the bigfoot mystery:

"There have been so many sightings over the years, even if you throw out 95 percent of them, there ought to be some explanation for the rest. I think a hard-eyed look is absolutely essential."source

Sunday, November 14, 2010

This news blurb recently crossed my desk, so I thought I'd put it out there for my many international readers. If you live in or near London, try to make it down for the event. Although sasquatches will not be on the agenda for the night, that is a temporary oversight. At least two of the speakers (Sir David Attenborough and Dr. Jane Goodall) are interested in the subject enough to voice optimism towards the animals' existence. The other ape experts should be closely listened to as well, since it is clear that sasquatches are a species of great ape that deserve their place alongside their gorilla, chimp, bonobo, orangutan, gibbon, and human cousins.

Here's the article. If you can attend, please tell me how it went by contacting me at NorthAmericanBigfoot@gmail.com.

The evening will commence with a short film introducing five species of ape, followed by a series of 20-minute talks about the plight of each species from five speakers involved in ape research and conservation.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Two of my best bigfooting friends recently got married, and on the same weekend.

Craig and Brianna Flipy were united in marriage on October 9th out in Estacada, OR, right on the edge of the bigfoot wonderland of the Clackamas River. Performing the ceremony was none other than long-time bigfoot researcher and friend of the 'squatch, James "Bobo" Fay. With Bobo on the pulpit, Craig in the groom's costume, and me playing them down the aisle on 7-string jazz guitar, it was an exceptionally squatchy ceremony.

Cliff Barackman, Barney Rubbish, Craig Flipy,
and James "Bobo" Fay in front of
Mike's Second Hand Store in Estacada, OR.

The reception got even weirder. It was held at the ever-strange Safari Club, full of taxidermy animals slaughtered by a big game hunter back in decades passed.

Not your typical reception decoration.

The following day, Will and Cara Robinson were wed. Their ceremony took place on the east side of Mt. Hood at a venue named, "The Bigfoot Lodge." With fruit trees and national forest as far as the eye could see, I was salivating at the habitat surrounding the outside wedding. I had to hold myself back from doing calls and whoops during the actual ceremony. I don't think Will would have minded, but perhaps some other guests would have...

Monday, November 8, 2010

Over the last month or so, professional and personal obligations have firmly anchored me in the cityscape of the Portland metropolis. No matter how much I love this town, I had to get out regardless of what the local meteorologists said.

I set my sites on the beloved Coast Range in Clatsop County and broke out my maps. Having recently spoken to a biologist who stumbled upon a couple bigfoots knocking back and forth to each other on the Nehalem River, I thought I'd give that area a shot. I had never been to this particular part of the river before, having only taken a drive up the river from the coast (and stopped by the washout of the Foss Road Bridge), and certainly the whole area is mind-bogglingly squatchy. However, when faced with a vast region where literally everywhere seems to be the perfect habitat for sasquatches, how does one narrow down the search?

Lost Lake on a rainy evening.

I've always been a fan of lakes and marshes, so using Google Earth, I started scanning the area. I stumbled across a well-used fishing spot south of Highway 26 called Lost Lake. It seemed just about perfect. The water would ensure that lots of animals and plants (and therefore bigfoot food) would be present. It was located high up on a hilltop, thus giving the area lots of panoramic views and strategic escape routes. There were practically no sightings from that stretch of river, even though I'm pretty certain there are bigfoots in the area. This, to me, indicated that I'd be working with "virgins," or bigfoots that hadn't been bigfooted before and therefore would be more apt to fall for my little tricks.

While preparing to leave on Saturday morning, I received a phone call from another investigator in Portland who picked up a report of some fresh footprints in the Coast Range. The investigator was going to meet with the witness in Beaverton, and then drive to the location, so I tagged along. On the way to the witness' house, I picked up friend of the 'squatch, Guy Edwards, the lead artist for the Bigfoot Lunch Club blog.

Guy Edwards implementing his circus training.

As it turns out, the location was only a short drive from my final destination, being located way back in the maze of roads along Wolf Creek. After navigating the logging roads, hiking off trail a few hundred yards and crossing a shallow creek, it turned out that the prints were likely a misidentification. The witness felt bad to have dragged us out to the wilds to show us bear tracks, but I didn't feel like it was a waste of time. At least he reported it to somebody. Too many people never tell anyone what they have seen, and potentially valuable data has repeatedly been lost as a result.

In person, the print looked much less bigfooty.

I've gone out on dozens and dozens of such excursions to look at possible sasquatch prints, and I have yet to see a really clear track in the ground. After all, all the research points to the fact that clear tracks are by far more rare than actually seeing a sasquatch. Still, if I don't go out on every lead I get, I may never see a clear track in the ground. I'll happily go on hundreds of wild goose chases to see one set of prints in mud! Who wouldn't?

After saying goodbye to the investigator and witness, I managed to meet up with Craig and Brianna Flipy (yes, he was recently married!), and Barney Rubbish. We caravaned together to Lost Lake and found a suitable campsite before the rains hit.

With the downpour just starting, we managed to construct some shanty-like shelters which kept us moderately dry. It was raining hard enough that our auditory senses would be useless for the evening. It looked like our bigfoot trip degraded into a camping trip with good friends, which is fine too. Though it was wet enough that we never managed to get a decent fire going, we kept ourselves warm with friendly conversation and yummy birthday home brew (yes, I brew, and it's my birthday month). A few hours later, we all made our way to bed for the evening.

Mike and Boofy, all wrapped up.

I awoke, as I nearly always do, a few minutes before my alarm would be going off (even though it was the weekend, which is a really annoying habit I've fallen into this past year). The rain had temporarily stopped, and a silence had descended upon the forest. I don't know what time it was, but it was very early greylight (that time after dark, but before dawn). I was looking at the ceiling of my tent, listening, when I heard a loud knock from the northeast. Perhaps thirty seconds later, I heard a more distant knock from the southeast. Of course, no recorder was running because the cacophony of raindrops would have drowned out any calls the previous evening, and I pretty much wrote off squatching for the night. I guess Lost Lake was a pretty good location after all...

As I later found out, the knock was loud enough to have awakened Craig from his sleep. Was it a bigfoot? I don't know, of course. Still, it was pretty loud and clear. I'm still waiting for a better explanation for these knocks I keep hearing... In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to returning to Lost Lake for a less rainy look around.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

I recently reported the premiere of "Strange Days with Bob Saget" on this blog. As it turns out, the network changed its mind and bumped the date up by one. The new premiere date is Tuesday, November 30th at 10 pm.

As mentioned on a previous blog, some ridiculous stuff happened on the shoot, so maybe you don't want to watch it. They even interviewed my ex-wife about being married to a bigfooter. I know that she and I currently have a good relationship, but one never knows how the editors will treat the on-camera "talent." Television tends to go for the low-hanging fruit...

Here's the press release:

NEW YORK – October 26, 2010 – A&E presents “Strange Days with Bob Saget”, a new real-life series that busts down barriers to investigate some of America’s most fascinating subcultures and corners of society. Documenting his journey around America, Saget immerses himself in different unusual cultures from the world of Bigfoot hunters to the trials of the pro-wrestling circuit. The series premieres Tuesday, November 30 at 10PM ET/PT with back-to-back episodes.

Known for his roles in “Full House,” as the host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” his edgy stand-up comedy routines and his guest starring turns on “Entourage,” Bob Saget definitely has a unique view of the world. His unflinching observations about offbeat people and lifestyles in his stage performances have sparked him to take a more in-depth, hands-on investigation of this subject matter. Throughout six thirty-minute episodes, Bob will ride on a Harley (well, in a sidecar) for 1,200 miles with hardcore bikers to try and get accepted into their club, search for Bigfoot with Bigfoot hunters, navigate the trials and tribulations of becoming a professional wrestler, search for the true Las Vegas through the eyes of three very different groups of people, rush a fraternity at Cornell University, and become a counselor in training at a sleepover camp for 11 – 14 year old kids.

“I’ve always been interested in the under belly of anything,” said Saget, “But what I truly enjoy is diving beneath the surface of a subculture that may appear to be one thing, but ends up being something completely unexpected.”

“Strange Days with Bob Saget” is produced for A&E Network by Tijuana Entertainment (“Obsessed,” “The Two Coreys”) and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Executive producers for Tijuana are Troy Searer and John Foy. Peter Traugott serves as executive produce for Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Bob Saget also serves as executive producer. Executive producers for A&E are Robert Sharenow and Scott Lonker.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Fox News in North Carolina recently paid colleague and friend of the 'squatch, Mike Greene, a visit. They were largely interested in the thermal footage that likely shows a sasquatch that Mike obtained in 2009.

The full article is reprinted below, or can be accessed by clicking here.

N.C. Man Claims He Has Picture of Bigfoot

ASHEBORO, N.C. (WGHP) —

A man that once worked as a fraud investigator claims he has captured an image of North American folklore.Mike Greene, a former chief of fraud investigation in New Jersey, claims he captured video of Bigfoot in the Uwharrie National Forest over a year ago."In the middle of the night, I was awakened by what I call, 'Darth Vader' breaths," said Greene. Greene said he was able to capture a thermal image of Sasquatch that night.

"The image is the first comprehensive thermal image of a Sasquatch… even though I admit that it's blurry," said Greene.

In the video, Greene claims you can see a big creature come out of the woods and grab a candy bar that was set up to attract the Sasquatch.

"It can't be anything else, I mean, it literally can't be anything else," said Greene.

Greene said many people have said the image is just a guy in a fat suit or gorilla suit, but he claims the thermal image proves it's something different.

"The heat signature - which is what you're looking at…the heat signature would be completely different. It would be splotchy," said Greene. "You could put a guy in a Bigfoot costume and fool night vision, because that's just like a video camera. But if you put a thermal image on him, that's going to look completely different."

After seeing the video, Greene was convinced he had captured video of the much-discussed creature Bigfoot.

"Yeah, there's no doubt about it," said Greene.

Greene admits that he, and the rest of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, are surprised there has not been better proof after several years of searching and many attempts to get a glimpse of the evasive alleged creature.

"We have, in the organization, maybe 200 game cams out looking for Sasquatches. We haven't got one lousy picture of a Sasquatch, which doesn't make any sense, unless you think that maybe these things are so smart that they either see the game cam," said Greene.

Greene said there is no doubt he caught one of the rare images of the increasingly evasive creature.

"Clear as a bell, absolutely unequivocally, no doubt what it was - to me, anyway," said Greene.

A majority of scientists discount the existence of Bigfoot and consider it to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than a legitimate animal, in part because some estimate large numbers necessary to maintain a breeding population.

Greene said fossils of a sasquatch-like creature have been unearthed in China. He claims the creature came over the land bridge that used to exist between Asia and Alaska..